Sally Mann

I suppose I have waited so long to update about Sally because I have seen her before last semester but this is way more in depth. Here is the bit from last semester…

“Just got finished watching a short movie on the photographer Sally Mann. I was really impressed with the fact that she still used film and on a very old camera which looks like one of the first cameras ever made. She still uses chemicals and mixing on glass slides.Her mad desire to have the perfect print is very admirable. My dad was similar because I would see all these prints that I thought were amazing and they were all trash because something wasn’t just right. I love the simplicity of her photos and the fact that you can feel what she feels through her photography. I think her daughter was right in saying that she was able to express herself without words through her photography.

She reminds me a little bit of Brandenberg only because of the theme of simplicity, beauty, and nature. However, the fact that her photos are in black and white or sepia adds another level of complexity in my opinion. Black and white is so hard to shoot because of levels and have having the correct balance between dark and light.

I love how she views photography as art and something fun instead of looking for the meanings within her art. She takes it seriously but not to the point of absurdity. Who are critics to judge the meanings behind art?”

She is currently look at decomposing bodies. I think she could have also been a mortician considering the fact she seems on a different plane thank the living and dead decomposition doesn’t bother her. Sure, I find it fascinating but I don’t think I have the stomach to poke around and see the bugs. I like how she is confronting death. I have had a lot of death in my family and I learned a long time ago the body is a shell. I love that she can find something so different (and possibly disgusting) as the bone of a dog with a nail and tuft of hair still intact so intriguing. She can find the best in even the weirdest. Her composition is amazing too!

She seems so different from most people in general. She seems to be on another plane than most and I like it. I love how she doesn’t really care a lot about the art world. Plus the fact that she rides horses gives her +10 in my book 😉